Technical Lowering headlights on my 36 ford (questions)

I'm planning on lowering the headlights on my Ford. Just curious who on here has done this before and how it went? I'm sure it's pretty self explanatory once I get into it, but if anyone has any tips or photos of the process, it would be helpful. I drive this car every day, so I would want to do it in a day to make sure I could be driving it again on Monday, etc. I haven't pulled the lights off yet.

Also curious how much you guys are lowering them? I've heard anywhere between an inch to two inches?

Pictures would be great if anyone had some?

Here is my car for reference.

Thanks!

 

i think Rod & Custom did a tech article on this a few years ago

 

I had a black '36 Five window in '60-'63. Nice US Royal Masters, (WWW) 8.20 rear, 6.40 front.
If I had it back it would be skirted tail-dragger just like yours.

I seem to recall those headlamp stanchions were pot metal...(not sure)
If they're steel, tapered as they are I'd just cut a section out, and overlap the cut and tig them back together. Think it'd be good for 1"-1.5"...

 

Put 37 fenders on it!!

 

drill the rivits in the buckets out, cut the hole in the bucket out about 3/4" (you wont see the bigger hole when there back on) screw 10/24 coupling nuts to the bucket brackets, redrill the buckets to line up with the other end of the coupling nuts
grind the front of the bucket mounting brackets for reflector clearance
bolt it all back together
this will lower them around 1 1/4".use 1/4 inch coupling nut or a piece of tubing for more lowering but you have to cut the hole much bigger and the reflector will interfere much worse.
i did this to my old 36 phaeton that couver kid now owns.
sounds like your in portland you may have seen it around.
Bruce

 

F-head , funny-Couverkid is a member of my club, I was just talking to him about it.

Thank you for the info!!!

 

Pretty cool, F-head...Been a few years since I had my headlights off, (51!) didn't know you could 'climb down' on the brackets. Good trick!

 

Can you show some pictures of the lowered headlights on the Phaeton? I might do this on my '36.

 

'41 Chevy truck headlight buckets can be re-worked a bit to look great.

 

your welcome shooter.
theres pix of my old phaeton on riksters site under 36 ford customs.
couver kid is treatin it right.
that was a really fun car had 11 people in it one time,but thats for another time
dont want to hijack your thread
cheers,
Bruce

 

My personal favorite is to adapt and fit 40 chev headlights to 1936 Fords.

 

I lowered the headlights on my 36 roadster. was't worth the effort. ended up cutting a big hole in the bottom. I finnaly got about a 7/8 drop. not hardly even noticeable so didn't even bother on my 36 threewindow. no one ever sees the difference unless I tell them.

 

Be sure to check your hood latch clearances for your hands ..... I remember a friend having problems on a 35 after dropping the lights.

Oop's I just checked my 36 their back far enough so not a problem.

 

I had the same experience as threewindow. This was my car AFTER lowering the lights as far as they would go on the stock stands:

 

^ Little suttle things add up .... even 7/8th of an inch. You'd have to have a stocker side by side to see it, But I still like doing little tweeks.... especially the ride height and wheel position in the fenders. It can change a nice ride to bad ass by just gettting the details right.
Great looking 36's BTW

 

small tweak but well worth doing
also how about lose the sealed beams,hard to beat the 36 headlight lenses,check 50 frauds headlights
B

 

I agree! I used somebody's halogen conversion behind the '36 lenses. They weren't great lights, admittedly, but I thought the stock headlights were so pretty that I wasn't willing to give them up.

 

I've got several 36s. With two of them I can see pretty well at night. The other one, not so much. The lenses on all three look to be the same. I'm guessing that my one that performs poorly compared to the other does not have the proper reflector to make the halogens work at optimum. I'll have to do more research.

What have the rest of you found to improve the effectiveness when still using original lenses?

All help is greatly appreciated. Thanks. Al

 

I changed out the bulb sockets on my 35 and they were wired to run on high beam all the time.... the lenses were yellowed and if I had cleaned them it would have brightened up the lights... but it was 75 years of patina and I liked the look... like an old cars headlighs. I figue as long as they can see me coming their good enough... If it's dark dark out, I slow down.

 

Thanks for the help guys, I think I'll try to find some time this weekend to do that.

 

Just finished doing mine on the weekend,. Got a 2 1/8 inch drop.

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/35-36-fords.106626/page-11#post-5125087

I recall seeing another article where someone did something similar to lower their headlamp buckets

 

Old thread, new info. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...lights-on-a-1935-ford-the-quick-easy.1010836/

 

Seems like Ryan posted a thread on how to do it lately.

 

The dishwasher and Calgon does a nice job on those old headlight lenses. I found a nice set of '36 lenses for my '38 pickup (same headlight bucket, you just have to use the '36 ring with the '36 lens), they were dirty and had been gathering dust for years, came out of the dishwasher looking like NOS. I used the Bob Drake reflectors that take a modern halogen bulb. My truck has the brightest headlights of any vehicle I have owned,

 

Now that one above looks way wrong to me. I hate the 37 lights.
They ruin an otherwise very classy car, the 36 Ford is awesome just the way it is.
One of the nicest 30s era Fords ever.
Those 37 headlights do not belong on a 36.

 

I agree. 37 style do not belong on 36.

Surf City's lowered lights look great.

 

I like the 37 lights.

 

Checkout bears thread , page 15 in particular he has just got back into it and done an awesome job of lowering the headlights, whole build is top notch.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/posts/11477932/